Sausage theft at high cost

THE pitiable Mr Parry, whilst drunk, steals a sausage roll worth £1 and the full panoply of the law is thrown at him – Hereford Times , page 15, April 3 – no doubt at huge cost to the taxpayer. End result he has to repay £1 to the store and a £15 victim surcharge.

The sober (?) and intelligent (?) ex-Culture Secretary Ms Maria Miller manages to extract (wrongfully) thousands of times more value as “expenses”, fails to co-operate fully in the investigation, yet was allowed to keep her position of trust.

Is this an example of “compassionate conservatism” on the part of Mr Cameron towards his minister?

Perhaps the magistrates should have given Mr Parry a free copy of Animal Farm, so that he could learn why some animals are always more equal than others.

Kip Waistell Prospective Ukip candidate Hereford and Herefordshire South Vowchurch Hereford

Well done over plan

CONGRATULATIONS to Carolyn Lazarus and her neighbours in their successful defeat of a planning application and the best of luck for the future.

Residents of the area around Breinton Lee have just followed a similar route.

After the unanimous rejection by the planning committee (our thanks to them) of the application to exploit and overdevelop a small site that flooded regularly after heavy rain, the site owners immediately appealed.

After a superficial visit to the site a planning inspector upheld the appeal in a manner and on grounds that left local residents with a distinct impression that the process was simply a mere rubber stamping exercise.

The gaping hole left by Herefordshire council’s protracted failure to produce a Planning Framework/Development Plan greatly assisted the inspector.

I say again to Ms Lazarus and her neighbours – the best of luck.

You will need it.

Neil Thompson Breinton Lee, Hereford

We need help from council

WELL done Ledbury councillor Rich Hadley for highlighting the impact that Herefordshire Council policy makers are having on our market towns, Hereford Times, April 3.

In Leominster, as elsewhere, car parking charges, closure of public toilets and withdrawal of funding for tourism, and other public services, are among changes having devastating effects on our town, traders and businesses, already struggling with high rates and rents.

Leominster Enterprise Park has been seriously under-occupied for many years, managed by an unresponsive and distant landlord who appears to have little interest in our businesses or our local economy.

A huge housing development on a greenfield site on the edge of Leominster, is proposed in Herefordshire Council’s draft Local Plan, with no apparent thought given to the lack of jobs, or to the impact on our roads or health and education services.

Where is the support we should be getting from Herefordshire council in addressing these issues? By focusing almost entirely on Hereford and the Enterprise Zone, Herefordshire council and The Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) have neglected their responsibilities to the wider county.

Leominster is fighting back in many ways. The town council supports the successful establishment of our Tourist Information Centre (TIC) as a Community Interest Company, and is working with them and Leominster Area Regeneration Company (LARC), responsible for the recent refurbishment of iconic Grange Court, and the Attractions Group to revitalise and draw visitors to our historic town. We are also in the process of taking over and re-opening public toilets and the running of the Friday market. We have supported the successful bid to become a Walkers are Welcome town and the Neighbourhood Planning Group is working to ensure that future development represents the interests of all parts of the community.

Our wonderful volunteers, such as Leominster in Bloom, the Sunday litter picking group, the dog wardens, the footpath group, woodland team and many others, work hard to keep the town looking attractive and welcoming.

Leominster Town Council, together with its community partners, will do its best to ensure that the town thrives in spite of hard times. How much more could we do if Herefordshire council, under its current leadership, was playing its part and offering help instead of hindrance?

Felicity Norman Leominster Town and County Councillor

Cheers to the cider cash

SURELY £58 million investment in cider production is good news?

I am concerned by some comments made, re this huge investment in cider production. I do recognise that employment changes are difficult but surely we should look at the bigger picture and be delighted that Heineken are investing such a substantial sum of money in cider production.

This will secure and create many jobs in all the aspects of cider production throughout the whole county.

In Ledbury, £110 million was invested in the UBL plant a few years ago and this, I understand, will continue to be used for fruit processing. The unemployment rate in Ledbury is 1.7 per cent and while this is relatively low it does matter.

We must be mindful of areas of deprivation but also look at the bigger picture and we should celebrate such inward investment – thank-you Heineken.

Councillor Patricia Morgan Deputy leader, Herefordshire Council

Cost question over bins

YOU report that the council is proposing to issue all residents with black wheelie bins for landfill waste replacing black bags. These black bins will be collected every other week with green bins being collected on the weeks black bins are not.

This means we change from a system where black bags paid for by the householder are replaced by black wheelie bins that will have to be purchased by the council. There will still be a collection every week from each household. Given that the dust carts will have to make the same number of journeys under the proposed new system and that the council will have to pay for and distribute black wheelie bins to all it is hard to see where the suggested saving of £500,000 will come from. Have these savings been calculated by the same people who managed to create the famous black hole that was found in the county’s accounts not so long ago and who I understand remain in post.

ANDREW PACE Broxwood Leominster

Dangers of fracking

LAST Friday I attended a showing of the film Gasland at Upton Bishop.

This is a documentary made in 2010 by Josh Fox.

He had been offered $100,000 by a gas company to lease his family land for hydraulic fracturing. He decided to investigate the business and visited Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Texas where natural gas fracking had been going on for 10 years.

A fracking well requires a drilling derrick that may be on the site for several months while the borehole is drilled several thousand feet deep.

An access road suitable for very heavy trucks must be constructed along with parking and turning areas of hardstanding, offices and store buildings and a large lagoon to contain ‘returned’ fluids.

The drilling of the borehole itself introduces chemicals and metals into the subsoil, bedrock and shale as the drill has to be lubricated and the drilling tip slowly wears away.

A toxic mixture of 596 different chemicals is added to the fracking water which is then pumped down the borehole to fracture the shale bedrock.

Once the fracturing is complete and the gas has started to escape, the borehole is capped off by a system of silos with connecting pipes.

Fox found a direct correlation between nearby fracking and a huge number of very serious local incidents.

Drinking water wells in Wyoming became so polluted that the water was undrinkable and water analysis showed the presence of glycol esthers (which are neurotoxins) and hydrocarbons (carcinogenic).

The fracking companies denied responsibility.

In Colorado the mains water was so polluted with methane that the water could be ignited as it poured from the tap.

In the Delaware River Basin streams changed colour and were so polluted that all river life was killed – thousands of fish, insects and birds.

In Texas, farm and domestic animals were losing their hair.

In Utah, methane escaping from badly-capped wells was causing local smog, headaches and respiratory disease in the residents.

In all states people were feeling nauseous, suffering unexplained bouts of diarrhoea and pins and needles.

Huge swathes of countryside have been made indescribably ugly by the silos, pipework and access roads of the fracking sites, some of which were only a few miles apart.

As far as the eye could see, what had been pleasant arable lands have been turned into a wasteland of industrial ugliness and pollution.

Fracking wells seem to have proliferated unchecked and uncontrolled in the USA.

It is worthy of mention here that earthquakes of 2.3 and 1.4 Richter occurred in Lancashire after fracking was carried out by Cuadrilla in 2011.

The US’s desire for home- produced gas has over-ridden any pretence at protecting the environment or the health of its people.

The power of the big gas corporations is very evident in that hydraulic fracking was specifically exempted by the US government from the Safe Drinking Water Act of 2005.

That is an admission that fracking would pollute drinking water and surface water and yet they still let it go ahead. Unbelievable.

Fracking is the source of energy espoused by our government. This is beyond belief.

One doubts that ministers have seen the film or know anything about shale gas extraction other than that it might supply the UK with natural gas without having to import it from Russia.

The obsession with shale gas extraction is diluting the efforts we should be making to develop and encourage the use of genuinely carbon-free sources of energy such as solar, wind, hydro, wave and tidal.

In case you still have doubts on this score, Cornell University professors report that fracking is even worse than coal for climate change.

I defy anyone who has seen this film (or who has read the above text) to approve of fracking or be apathetic or complacent about it.

It was indeed the horror movie of all time and Fownhope is on the government’s list of frackable areas due to the presence of shale.

We run the risk of poisoned drinking water, polluted groundwater, earthquake, atmospheric pollution, health damage and wildlife deaths.

For local information and discussion visit: afrackfreeherefordshire.blogspot.co.uk/ or richardpriestley.co.uk/

NICK KINGSFORD Fownhope, Hereford

Preserve our heritage

MAY I tell Councillor Bramer, Hereford Times, March 27, that the letter to the Woolhope Club from English Heritage did not rubbish the building that was the former Industrial Boys’ Home as he has done.

This was in response to a letter from our secretary requesting that the building be listed.

He could not have seen this letter.

This unique building was designed by notable local architects: George Haddon and George Godsell.

They may not have been known nationally but they contributed many buildings in Herefordshire.

Compared with the ill- designed blocks that have arisen on the Old Market site their work is worthy of respect.

This particular building has a sensitive heritage, reflecting a caring society that ensured these orphan boys aged nine to 14 were given training and a future.

Rev John Venn was the patron and Sir James Rankin MP was chairman.

Their good work meant that it was one of the best industrial schools in the country.

Is this not a history of which we should be proud?

The Boys’ Home is in a conservation area and demolition requires permission.

The nearby residential flats and houses make it unsuitable for a noisy fire station and Bath Street is often jammed up. This could be a desirable development which would enhance Bath Street rather than destroying it.

There is a blinkered view of Hereford City that does not see buildings that have acquired value because of their past and need protection so that our history is not lost .

We have to watch out for the philistines who would make us into another characterless town out of contempt for the past.

JEAN O’DONNELL President the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club Broadlands Lane, Hereford

Community fire station

THERE has been considerable comment on the letters page recently regarding the proposed land swap in order for Hereford(shire) to have a fire station that is fit for purpose.

Personally I am very grateful to the dedicated staff who turn out in all sorts of weather to attend fires, road traffic accidents, emergencies involving livestock and where I would agree with the chairman of the Civic Society that there should be more debate, but the decision to further investigate the proposals was only made on March 26 at a fire authority meeting so it is early days yet.

However, a public meeting has been agreed and I look forward to sharing information with anyone who is interested in the future of the fire service , which is not just for the city but the whole of the county.

I live in Ledbury Road and Herford fire station has been part of this community for decades and if the relocation to Bath Street is approved it will remain part of that community.

Several sites have been looked at over the years and have been rejected for a variety of reasons. The cash-strapped council should not in my opinion increase its level of borrowing so negotiating a land swap not an expensive purchase would benefit the council tax payer.

As a true admirer of John Venn the philanthropic benefactor who so generously supported Hereford by providing land including this site for service to the public , I think he would be delighted that the ethos and benefits he brought to the city would continue for generations to come, perhaps by naming the building after him .

Lastly, I would like to see a building of which we can all be justly proud, iconic rather than the eyesore development nearing completion less than a mile away.

CLLR LLOYD-HAYES Tupsley Ward Member of Hereford and Worcester Fire Authority

In defence of hospital

Mrs Karen Nicholas’ letter to the Hereford Times, April 3, claimed that I was worried about Hereford Hospital being closed.

I voted with the Government on the Care Bill after a key concession had been made which reassured me that Hereford Hospital could not be under threat of closure by a future Labour Government, should such a terrible possibility ever occur.

I have always fiercely defended our Hospital. All my children were born in Hereford and I want to be crystal clear that Hereford Hospital is safe and is not at risk of closure.
We are very lucky to have such dedicated doctors and nurses and it was a shame that Mrs Nicholas failed to mention that I sent her a press release from Wye Valley NHS Trust attacking Opposition MPs for scaremongering over hospital closures.

It is wrong to create myths about the NHS, particularly when NHS spending has increased in real terms since 2010.

Last year local NHS bodies received an increase of more than £2.5 billion and investment in the NHS will have increased by £12.5 billion by 2015.

Bill Wiggin MP
North Herefordshire